Kara’s foster mother visits for Thanksgiving, while an accident transforms a volatile CatCo employee into Livewire.

CBS‘ Supergirl juggled this latest episode in light of the Paris attacks. The episode that was to air had bombings occurring across the city. In its place, we get the debut of Livewire, a classic DC Comics villain and one nice adapted for this live show.

This episode has the character being a shock-jock employee of CatCo who’s transformed due to a freak accident. The episode has pretty decent special fx, and Brit Morgan who plays Livewire is pretty entertaining in the role (though she shares a bit too much of a look with Liv from iZombie.

But the hear of the episode rests in the relationship of daughters and mothers. We learn much more about Cat Grant and why she might be a bit tough on Supergirl, and Kara and her sister tell their mother the truth about things (as if she didn’t know Kara was Supergirl, that’s not the secret).

But, we get some solid family interaction out of it and a very cut and sweet moment between Kara and Winn. Through all of the action, the episode really revolves around the relationships between the characters and dealing with their family.

The episode also takes on its tone directly with lots of talk about discourse and being positive. Some have had issues with the tone of the show, being too nice, where I think the positive attitude is a welcome change. It’s actually talked about in a roundabout way.

The episode bounces back nicely from the previous episode. And awesome secrets revealed!

Overall rating: 7.8

Supergirl’s powers are put to the test when one of Superman’s most formidable enemies, Reactron, shows up in National City to take her down. In the meantime, Cat makes plans to run an expose on Supergirl.

The first two episodes of CBS‘ Supergirl were a breath of fresh air with action mixed with a positive message, starring a girl. Much of those two episodes saw Supergirl figuring out the whole superhero thing, making mistakes along the way. The big thing though was though Superman exists in this world, his role was in the background.

This third episode puts him in the foreground, even stepping in to save Kara in a battle against one of Superman’s foes Reactron. That moment kind of kills a lot of the message of the first two episodes. Superman steps in to save her which has her flipping out how he did so. While I kind of see how the writers think this helps push her message, to me it hurts.

The show should be centered around Kara/Supergirl, but instead Supes steps in to save her. She fought villains so far where she gets her but kicked and needs to come back to defeat them later. That’s nothing new. And Reactron isn’t well known enough that viewers might care that he’s super difficult to beat. The message given in the moment is that Supergirl did indeed Superman, to me belittling the positive message up to this point. And the fact others were stepping in to make Supes happen doesn’t help matters at all.

The show ends with a bit of a spin from a message from the Man of Steel, but still, the episode feels like a misstep in many ways. The first two episodes soared high, this one came back to Earth.

Overall rating: 6

Kara must put doubts aside as she tries to apprehend an escapee from the Kryptonian prison; Cat pressure James for an interview with Supergirl.

The debut of CBS‘ Supergirl was a breath of fresh air with an action oriented comic based television series with a positive and feminist bent. It’s a show I’m sure little kids were excited to watch, and parents hopefully were ok with them doing so.

The second episode continues the positive message and gets us to more of what will likely be the season’s major nemesis, Supergirl’s Aunt.

What really suprised me about the episode is its positive aspect. The show had Kara learning a bit about fighting and self-defense, but more importantly about self-confidence. With her abilities, she still doesn’t quite know how to use them, which leads to her making mistakes and taking a step back about her role.

There’s a nice comedic aspect about it all, but there’s a great positive message that’s reiterated at the end of the episode. It’s clear Kara doesn’t have confidence, but through some sound advice she takes that step back, and starts with small tasks to build up her how she feels about herself. It’s a great lesson I can see many parents attempting to impart on their children.

The show exudes positivity from the lessons taught to the humor, even the bright colors all just make me smile. It’s nice to watch a show without a hint of grim and gritty. Comics as a whole needs more of that, and this show is showing how it can be done and done really well.

The show is more than just Supergirl, it’s also about Kara the regular person. Seeing how she deals with having the dual life. How she reacts to how people treat her and her alter-ego. There’s very much a human touch to it all. My only fear is the series stumbles in this department, particularly in the romantic space, but maybe those fears are unfounded.

The second episode wasn’t quite as magical as the first, but it’s an hour of television the whole family can watch, enjoy, and feel good about it all.

Overall rating: 8